Valve Will Not Make Exclusive Games for SteamOS

Valve has confirmed that it will not be making games that are exclusive to SteamOS or Steam Machines.

Speaking to IGN, Valve’s Greg Comer said, “you won’t see an exclusive killer app for SteamOS from us. We’re not going to be doing that kind of thing.”

This will also apply to third-party titles, Valve’s Anna Sweet told us. “Whenever we talk to third-party partners, we encourage them to put their games in as many places as possible, including not on our platforms," she said. "Because we think that customers are everywhere, and they want to put their games wherever customers are. That would go against our whole philosophy, to launch something that’s exclusive to SteamOS or Steam machines.”

You won’t see an exclusive killer app for SteamOS from us. We’re not going to be doing that kind of thing.

“Or to drive customers there artificially,” Coomer continued. “Because if it can run in both places, we don’t like to create those artificial barriers to accessing content. We believe that, in maybe five years from now, folks will find it a quite antiquated notion that you should assume that when you change devices or platforms, that you lose all of your other games and friends. We’re hoping to unify, to get Steam to be as platform- and context-agnostic as possible. You shouldn’t have to shed that every generation, or even slightly shed it.”

Coomer added that “it would be pretty silly” if a third-party developer wanted “to limit their game to a certain platform.” He did note that small, independent studios who only have the resources to focus on one platform may inevitably make games that only run on SteamOS, “but that’s a very different thing.”